2. The three most prestigious film festivals are commonly regarded to be that of
Cannes, Berlin and Venice; these festivals are sometimes called the "Big Three”.
Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski's ‘The Three ColorsTrilogy’ were each made
for these festivals; with a colour to help signify the different locations (with Blue
for Venice, White for Berlin, and Red for Cannes).
The ‘Toronto International Film Festival’ is North America's most popular festival.
Time wrote it had "grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the
most influential film festival, period.
The ’Seattle International Film Festival’ is credited as being the largest film festival in
America, regularly showing over 400 films in a month across the city. The ‘Sundance
Film Festival’, ‘Tribeca Film Festival’, ‘New York City International Film Festival -
NYCIFF-’, ‘Montreal World Film Festival’ and ‘Gimli Film Festival’ are also major
festivals in North America, as is the ‘Vancouver International Film Festival’,
the fifth largest film festival in North America.
3. "A" Festivals: The festivals in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Shanghai, Moscow, San Sebastián, Montréal,
Locarno (since 2002), Karlovy Vary, Mar del Plata, Cairo, Tokyo, and Warsaw are listed as "A
festivals", or "category one" by the ‘International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF)’
This means that they are very elite and popular with the larger named Directors, Producers e.c.t.
Experimental films: ‘Ann Arbor Film Festival’ was started in 1963. It is the oldest continually
operated experimental film festival in North America, it has become one of the premiere film
festivals for independent and, primarily, experimental filmmakers to showcase their work.
Independent films: In the US, ‘Telluride Film Festival’, ‘Sundance Film Festival’, Austin's South by
Southwest, and New York City's ‘Tribeca Film Festival’, are all considered significant festivals for
independent film. The ‘Zero Film Festival’ is significant as the first and only festival exclusive to
self-financed filmmakers. The biggest independent film festival in the UK is ‘Raindance Film
Festival’.
'North American: The ‘San Francisco International Film Festival’, started in 1957, is the oldest
continuously running film festival in America. It highlights current trends in international
filmmaking and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S.
distribution. The ‘Toronto International Film Festival’, begun in 1976, is regarded North America's
most major and most prestigious film festival, and the most widely attended worldwide. Toronto's
‘Hot Docs’ is the leading North American documentary film festival. Toronto also has the largest
amount of film festivals in the world, ranging from cultural, independent, and historic films. The
largest festival, in terms of the number of features shown, is the ‘Seattle International Film
Festival’, screening 270 features, and approximately 150 short films. The ‘Whistler Film Festival’,
with is amazing location and breath-taking scenery, is getting bigger every year with more than
80 screenings and a well-rounded Industry Summit. Meanwhile, the ‘New York Film Festival’ only
shows a few films in each year, but it still has big impact in the United States. The ‘Sundance film
festival’ is a major festival for independent film.
4. • Latin American significance: The ‘Cartagena Film Festival’, founded by Victor Nieto in 1960. It
is the oldest film festival in Latin America. The ‘Festival de Gramado’ (or Gramado Film Festival)
‘Gramado, Brazil’ along with the ‘Guadalajara International Film Festival’ in Guadalajara,
Mexico are considered to be the most important film festivals of Latin America. It was first
held in 1973, awarding Latin American films. The ‘Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival’ has been
held since 1975 in the Spanish city (Huelva Ibero). While the ‘Expresión en Corto International
Film Festival’ is the largest competitive film festival in Mexico, which specializes in emerging
talents, and is held each year during the last week of July in the two colonial cities of San
Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato. Among Spanish speaking countries the ‘Dominican
International Film Festival’ which is held annually in Puerto Plata, DR, the ‘Valdivia International
Film Festival’ is held annually in the city of Valdivia. It is arguable the most important film
festival in Chile.
• Animation: Founded in 1960, the ‘Annecy International Animated Film Festival’ is the oldest
international film festival dedicated exclusively to animation. The others are: Zagreb (f. 1972)
Ottawa (f. 1976), Hiroshima (f. 1985), KROK (f. 1989), and Anima Mundi (f. 1992). There are also
a variety of regional festivals in various countries.
• Asian Film Festival: Most notable amongst the Asian Film Festivals are the ‘Osian's-Cinefan
Film Festival’, which was recently expanded to include Arab Cinema as well, and the ‘Hong
Kong International Film Festival’ (HKIFF) and ‘Busan International Film Festival’ (BIFF).
• African festivals Significant African festivals based on the continent include the biannual
‘Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou’ FESPACO in Burkina Faso, the annual
‘Durban International Film Festival’ which has grown in importance for industry with the
addition of a co-production forum and Talent Campus.
5. European festivals The biggest European festival is the ‘Cannes film festival’ in
France along with Berlin and Venice.
Art and Technology: The ‘Palo Alto International Film Festival’, a program of the
Palo Alto Institute, which is the only film festival in the United States to celebrate
the convergence of art and technology, it does this by focusing on the influence
of emerging technologies on cinema.
Emerging Filmmakers: The ‘KahBang Film Festival’, part of the ‘KahBang Music-
Art-Film Festival’ in Bangor, Maine, is one of the newest film festivals in the
United States to discover and showcase the work from Emerging Filmmakers
throughout the world. Their programming continues to be unique by also
showcasing the best new Comedy features, Music Documentaries, and Maine
made films. Each year they honour one notable actor, actress, or filmmaker with
the "Kevin Norwood Bacon Award for Achievement in Cinema", acknowledging
the success the recipient of the award has achieved in being so closely connected
to Kevin Bacon. One of their films is screened in the KahBang Off Screen
Category, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" which connects the honoured back to the
man himself.
6. I then decided to have a look at two of the main
independent film festivals, that seemed to
apply themselves with the type of film that my
partner and I had created, this included:
Zero Film Festival
Raindance Film Festival
7. Zero Film Festival is the first (and only independent)
film festival exclusive to self-financed filmmakers. It
was founded by Brad Bores, Richard Hooban and
Mallia Sherzai in 2007; the film festival holds annual
festival events in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles,
London and Miami Beach, with the American Buffalo
as the symbol for the festival, which is representing
the independent spirit.
The festival presents feature length narrative and
documentary films, shorts, animations, experiments
and music videos.
Each year the festival features filmmakers and films
from a different conflict region, past countries include
Georgia, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Another
component of the festival is the "made for zero"
series, in which established filmmakers and artists are
asked to create unique works with no budget.
8. The mission statement of the festival
is to provide a platform in key cultural
centres for self-financed films from
the global independent film
community. Zero Film Festival
focuses on community, inclusivity and
a general positive atmosphere.
The festival is typically held in non-
traditional cinema venues such as
warehouses, film studios, art galleries,
museums and open spaces. Often
there is a live music component
coinciding with the film screenings.
9. The origins of the Zero Film Festival emerged from underground screenings
held in downtown Los Angeles for the local DIY film community.
Following positive responses, the festival opened its doors for international
participation.
The first official Zero Film Festival was held at the Flower St. Warehouse in
December 2008. In 2009 they saw the expansion to New York as well as the
first West Coast Tour with screenings in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco,
Hollywood and Orange County.
In the Spring of 2010, Zero Film Festival held its first international screening
at the Cinecycle in Toronto, ON. 2010 Miami Beach was added, holding a
screening at the Raleigh Hotel in conjunction with the Miami Beach
Cinematheque and the French Consulate during the Art Basel Fair.
10. Raindance is an independent film festival and film
school that operates from various cities including:
London, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal,
Budapest, Berlin and Brussels [1]. The festival was
established in 1992 by Elliot Grove to extend the
normal film school activities of Raindance. The
Raindance Film School alumni list includes the notable
names of: Sacha Baron Cohen, David Yates, Edgar
Wright, Matthew Vaughn, Alison Owen, Guy Ritchie, Jury members have included Lou Reed, actresses
Ben Miller, Christopher Nolan, Kirk Jones, Mark Judi Dench and Kerry Fox, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop,
Mahon, Emily Lloyd, Vadim Jean, Nick Hornby, Roland Dutch photographer and filmmaker Anton Corbijn,
Mick Jones of The Clash, Andrea Arnold, Marky
Gift, Julian Fellowes, Paul Brooks, Clive Bradley and Ramone, and American filmmaker Jonathan
Jeremy Bolt. Caouette. Patrons of Raindance include Ewan
Awards at the festival include Best International McGregor, Terry Gilliam, Mike Figgis, Ken Loach,
Feature and Short, Best UK Feature and Short, Best and Marky Ramone. The festival attracts key
industry figures including notable appearances by
Documentary Feature, and Best Debut. In its time the Alan Rickman, Mike Figgis, Ken Loach, Don Letts,
festival has premiered The Blair Witch Project, Marky Ramone, Trudie Styler, Vanessa Redgrave,
Capturing the Friedmans, Memento, Oldboy, Firecracker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mick Jones, Anton Corbijn and
Karosta: Life After the USSR, Girlfriend in a Kimono, Jonny Lee Miller.
Elliot Grove is also the founder of the British
Ex_Drummer and War Games: At the End of the Day. Independent Film Awards
11. The Moët British
Independent Film Awards
is an annual award History
ceremony celebrating The British Independent Film Awards were created in
1998 by Raindance founder Elliot Grove. Grove set out
achievement in to celebrate merit and achievement in independently
funded British filmmaking, to honour new talent, and
independently funded to promote British films and filmmaking to a wider
public audience. It forms part of the Raindance Film
British film and cinema. Festival held each year in September/October.
Submissions are required before 23 September each
Nominations and jury are year.
announced at the beginning The Founding Members are Phillip Alberstat, Chris
Auty, Suzanne Ballantyne, André Burgess, Sally
of November with the Caplan, Pippa Cross, Christopher Fowler, Lora Fox
Gamble, Steven Gaydos, Elliot Grove, Norma
award ceremony taking Heyman, Emma E. Hickox, Fred Hogge, Robert Jones,
Steve Kenis, Alberto Lopez, Ollie Madden, Hamish
place in late November or McAlpine, Neil McCartney, Saul Metzstein, Martin
Myers, Sarah Radclyffe, Tracey Scoffield, Mark Shivas,
early December. Jim Wilson, and MichiyoYoshizaki.
In 2010, BIFA announced a partnership with the
climate change organisation Global Cool aimed at
introducing green behaviours into film plots.